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this could be an idea for the beggining of a nightmare tale. A family strugling financially gets 250.000 from google but can never contact google because they

this could be an idea for the beggining of a nightmare tale. A family strugling financially gets 250.000 from google but can never contact google because they are so difficult to reach but also can never use the money for fear of google noticing at some point and asking for the money back. Bank freezes account for suspect activity, irs audit and all kinds of hell...

riskable 4y ago
FYI: The (Federal) statute of limitations on fraudulent bank transfers is 5 years. That's from a "they can prosecute you" standpoint. Various states have their own laws but in Florida (where I live) the undo button on the "oops, the bank/some company transferred a million into your account without noticing" is one year. There's two reasons why the time frame is so short: 1) "It's their own damned fault." There's an expectation that of all the institutions that should have 100% control and visibility to all of their transactions it's banks and big businesses. 2) The longer funds have gone unreturned the more expensive and time consuming it (usually) is to trace where the money went. I don't know if one year is the optimal period for such tradeoff calculations (probably not) but it is what it is.
joeconway 4y ago
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/dec/04/hmrc-mistake-return-cash-revenue https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/dec/04/hmrc-mistake-r...
sbaiddn 4y ago
Its a bloody nightmare. Anything above $10k triggers a bunch of bureaucracy but the money that causes and therefore to deal with this (lawyers, accountants, etc) is not theirs to keep. They could end up paying thousands in fees, and have to wait years to get $80K back from the taxman
- eek2121 4y ago
  You are definitely overstating it. The bank is required to keep records and file paperwork (i.e., inform the IRS) on deposits of over $10,000, but other than that, nothing happens. I regularly receive large deposits from my place of employment that exceed $10,000. I file taxes just like every other person each year. Shoot, I've received refunds from the IRS that exceed that amount.
- tluyben2 4y ago
  I got everything frozen over a 10k payment by my employer which the bank had the contract and prior transfers (same amount) of. I had to come to the bank office to clear it up; I was (of course) on the other side of world then trying to pay for my hotel room. Great fun.
  - sulam 4y ago
    I would change banks. This is a routine event for a lot of people.
    - tluyben2 4y ago
      I did when I arrived back.
- sulam 4y ago
  I get deposits from Google over that amount quite frequently and nothing bad happens. I do pay taxes on my income of course, but it’s not that anything over $10K is automatically a problem. In this case, yes they will need to pay taxes on it if they keep it. That’s not imminent and I imagine this will get cleared up well before then. It’s amusing that they filed a support request, though, and are only going to get it resolved due to publicizing it on Twitter. We really need a better way to get help from these companies.
giarc 4y ago
And google eventually shuts down the team that sent the money making it impossible for the family to connect with anyone about the money.
chrisjc 4y ago
I like it... and as a result Google and their partners start to slowly ban and shadow ban the family from all kinds of services including identity services until the family slowly ceases to exist (digitally).

riskable 4y ago

FYI: The (Federal) statute of limitations on fraudulent bank transfers is 5 years. That's from a "they can prosecute you" standpoint. Various states have their own laws but in Florida (where I live) the undo button on the "oops, the bank/some company transferred a million into your account without noticing" is one year. There's two reasons why the time frame is so short: 1) "It's their own damned fault." There's an expectation that of all the institutions that should have 100% control and visibility to all of their transactions it's banks and big businesses. 2) The longer funds have gone unreturned the more expensive and time consuming it (usually) is to trace where the money went. I don't know if one year is the optimal period for such tradeoff calculations (probably not) but it is what it is.

joeconway 4y ago

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/dec/04/hmrc-mistake-return-cash-revenue https://www.theguardian.com/money/2021/dec/04/hmrc-mistake-r...

sbaiddn 4y ago

Its a bloody nightmare. Anything above $10k triggers a bunch of bureaucracy but the money that causes and therefore to deal with this (lawyers, accountants, etc) is not theirs to keep. They could end up paying thousands in fees, and have to wait years to get $80K back from the taxman

eek2121 4y ago
You are definitely overstating it. The bank is required to keep records and file paperwork (i.e., inform the IRS) on deposits of over $10,000, but other than that, nothing happens. I regularly receive large deposits from my place of employment that exceed $10,000. I file taxes just like every other person each year. Shoot, I've received refunds from the IRS that exceed that amount.
tluyben2 4y ago
I got everything frozen over a 10k payment by my employer which the bank had the contract and prior transfers (same amount) of. I had to come to the bank office to clear it up; I was (of course) on the other side of world then trying to pay for my hotel room. Great fun.
- sulam 4y ago
  I would change banks. This is a routine event for a lot of people.
  - tluyben2 4y ago
    I did when I arrived back.
sulam 4y ago
I get deposits from Google over that amount quite frequently and nothing bad happens. I do pay taxes on my income of course, but it’s not that anything over $10K is automatically a problem. In this case, yes they will need to pay taxes on it if they keep it. That’s not imminent and I imagine this will get cleared up well before then. It’s amusing that they filed a support request, though, and are only going to get it resolved due to publicizing it on Twitter. We really need a better way to get help from these companies.

giarc 4y ago

And google eventually shuts down the team that sent the money making it impossible for the family to connect with anyone about the money.

chrisjc 4y ago

I like it... and as a result Google and their partners start to slowly ban and shadow ban the family from all kinds of services including identity services until the family slowly ceases to exist (digitally).